JIM SMITH CARTOONS

Merch to be promoted

2009-12-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

Illustrations for a cd by my friends Anthony Cossa and them. Sonic madness and rhythmic glory combine to form modern progressive ear food.

This job taught me things about illustration in general in today's tech - digital and paper. I like to start with a quick thumbnail sketch and a little marker color. Most of the time the thumbnail is the best version due to the inevitable downgrading as it goes to finish. This is where I go off the tracks, but with work it looks decent. The key is to stay faithful to the thumb and push it without losing the first flash of inspiration (See the John K. blog "All Kinds of Stuff") which we know is very difficult for knuckleheads like myself. The rough layouts were done mostly with marker and pencil plus a little black felt marker, then scanned and tweaked in Corel Painter 9. Using a small Wacom tablet, the colors were saturated and the inking was cleaned up. Found and created images were scattered about like Waldo. I love doing stuff like that - it's a collage! It gets tricky when the various images are very different sizes, leading to resolution problems. I usually do it the hard way and just slog through to the end, scan and resize, delete, resize - rescan and so on.

Art for Christmas

2009-12-16T14:41:00.000-08:00

My special holiday babe post, Merry Holidays!

FEARLESS DAWN #1 SPECIAL EDITION IN SHOPS

2009-12-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

Frank, over at Asylum Press sent these over. he tells me Steve Mannion's new book FEARLESS DAWN is in comic shops as of last week. Here's a sneak peak you pervs!!!

AND HERE'S A SNEAK PEAK AT 2 PAGES FROM FEARLESS DAWN #2--

Ripping Storyboard

2009-12-14T12:24:00.001-08:00

Storyboard from Ripping Friends episode "Stinky Butt", 1999-2000.

Thumb to cel

2009-12-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

As you can see, I did this bassackwards. It looks nice to have the pretty colored picture at the top.
At bottom below is the initial thumbnail almost a doodle, that shows the attitude/design of the character, then goes to a storyboard sketch much like the thumbnail. Layout artist turns it into a full-sized rough drawing which becomes the model basically. The animator brings it to life with movement, and also separates the arm and body so the head can talk and move independently. Animation is cleaned up, painted on a cel (back in the days) with background painting underneath, camera goes click! and Voila! You get a beautiful image of perversity and disgust. If only it were so easy.
Note: Sorry I lost the comments when I reposted, thanks to all who posted. I didn't do it right the first time. The missing piece is the desk on an OL/UL.

Behind the Scenes

2009-12-11T10:39:00.000-08:00

Building of a scene from thumbnail to animation.

Animation Art

2009-12-10T05:43:00.000-08:00

3 layouts and 1 animation drawing from Big House Blues, for sale cheap.

Book illustration type Drawings

2009-12-08T22:55:00.000-08:00

From a book written by Jennifer Waters aka Jennifer Blowdryer, The book is about famous last meals. (brush-tip marker type pen on white stationery.)

More fom the Ren and Stimpy stack

2009-12-06T22:13:00.000-08:00

First image is rough layout from Space Madness.
Second and third images are layout and rough animation, Big House Blues.

Jesus

2009-12-02T21:53:00.001-08:00

And a happy new chanuka to all!

Poster art

2009-11-29T22:31:00.000-08:00

This poster rocks. I only regret not having a better image. It is a good example of comic book style movie posters. I don't have the artist's name.

Football, I tell ya what!

2009-11-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

How about those Houston Texans? They have winning record and hope to continue that tradition. They might even get into the playoffs, in 10 or 12 years!

Haeyna Orgy

2009-11-15T12:30:00.000-08:00

We had a fine hootenanny over to the Haeyna gallery last night. Steve Worth sang the Ballad of Chestaclese and slayed the whole multitude. Many thanks to all who attended.
This image above is the first T-shirt design - front and back. Shirts will be white - sizes large and X large. $15 plus shipping.

Zombie Nazis and Ghosts

2009-11-10T18:52:00.001-08:00

Bottom - Lovely example of some vintage early 50s horror comics.
Top 3 - Character designs for Ghostbusters cartoon, 1987-88. Artist name on the tip of my tongue...Everett Peck, thanks John. Oh, it's not Peck but Fil Barlow. Sorry guys. Boy am I red.

2009-11-08T00:41:00.000-08:00

Have just finished reading volume 3 of Thimble Theatre featuring Popeye the Sailor, some of the most amazing and original comics ever. Extremely well drawn and written by Segar I highly recommend these as a prime example of newspaper comics. Funny and full of genuine pathos these stories will take off into unexpected directions. The animated version did the strip justice which is also rare. There are some really creepy scenes with the Sea-Hag and the fight with Bluto is nuts!

Ralph Bakshi

2009-11-04T08:16:00.001-08:00

Ralph's drawing style is very appealing. You can see the era from whence comes his influence. (Is that good grammar?)

Book signing

2009-11-04T08:09:00.001-08:00

Saturday November 14 we's having a little shindig over to the art gallery across the street. Free booze and hot babes. I will be signing sketchbooks and posters, (and hopefully body parts). Sorry folks - I told you the wrong time - it started at 5 and goes to 10. I am a retard (sometimes).

Weekend Pussy crap

2009-11-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

Smattering of layouts from all over. I don't know what's going on in those smoking scenes and I don't want to know, I just needed money. Weekend Pussy Hunt 1995.

Art for Cheap

2009-11-01T07:28:00.000-08:00

Big shiny 11"x17" glossy prints on card stock, for sale. Chestaclese 2008 is $10 and the barbarian 1978 is $15. Please include $5 shipping. E-mail me at jimsmithcartoons@yahoo.com or use the donate paypal button.
Makes a great gift or buy one for yourself! They are also available at the Hyena where I will be signing stuff on Saturday Nov. 14.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T21:29:00.001-07:00

Oooh, scary! Concept sketch for one of several George Liquor presentations, circa mid 90s.

Development secret stuff

2009-10-30T03:51:00.000-07:00

This here piece is from the big Viking pitch art, sketch by John K.and finish marker rending by Jim Smith, 2008.

Ripping Friends

2009-10-29T23:13:00.001-07:00

Thumbnail sketches from the Stinky Butt episode storyboard, 1999. Notice the professional "X" marks on the omitted scenes. That's today's lesson: "If you want to throw out a drawing just put a big X through it."

Mort Drucker

2009-10-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

Copied from Mad magazine - what fun!

Thrills

2009-10-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

Whenever I open one of my favorite comics , magazine and such, if there are caricatures I get a kick out of copying them. It's almost impossible to improve on the original and at least it is great practice.These are from photos, the copy batch is coming on the next post.

20th century

2009-10-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

Now that we are back on I would like to set the record straight as far as credit and whatnot. There are some people trying to stir up ill-will about John K. not giving proper credit to those who worked on Ren and Stimpy. There are plenty of magazine articles and interviews from years past where he gives much credit to many people my self included. We were all kind a following him on the show, he was the ramrod so to speak and no one who actually worked on the show really disputes that.